Tag Archives: history

For me, I had bunch of small moments that fell in the right place. For me when I started playing video game, I wasn’t much of an enthusiast. My parents were fairly strict and (Dare I say) somewhat backwards when it comes to new technology. Here’s the list of firsts that got me into playing video games.

The first time I ever met the digital world was probably in school when I was a kid. That’s when schools started to teach kids about graphic design and how to draw stuff on computers. The first computer I remember using was a Macintosh, I’m talking the years before the iMac went on the market and every school in my district pretty much had something from the late 80’s. Most distinctive piece of software was the paint program for it where you use dynamite to “blow up” your creations. Later as each classroom got it’s own computer, the district went forward with getting PC’s. Before the Apple computers were phased out of the computer lab, I remember playing Battle Chess or a variant of it. Until my parents finally got an SNES, this so happens to be the first exposure to video games in my entire life.

Then I got the SNES, or Super Nintendo for those who are a tad young and asking “what’s a SNES?” Remember how my parents were so strict on me playing video games? They were probably the epitome of tiger parents before the term even came around as “tiger parenting”. So essentially when they got me the SNES, they thought I was too young to have it and too young to do anything besides go to school and get good grades. My sibling on the other hand turned the argument around and got us the SNES. First game we got was Super Mario All Stars and at the time even with my parents putting money to this game console, the would hardly let us play it until we were done our homework or we had nothing else to do. After awhile, our library to include Super Mario World and Gladius II which was given to use by relatives. Later on in grade school, I met other people who owned the Playstation and the N64. At the time, the PS had GTA but I never touched it until a buddy of mine at the time got it and told me to try it. I mostly stayed on their N64 and my SNES. First exposure with platformers aside, I got into cinematic cutscenes and gun play of Perfect Dark. I got deep into the singleplayer and enjoyed the split screen, big head cheat fun of of PD.

The same buddy that got Perfect Dark got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and they let me play it. That was when everything just click. I liked sandbox, violence and open world games. Even to this day, these are the tenets of video games I like especially when it’s not overly exaggerated and just allows some escape from reality. As I got older, my parents seemed to relax a little and got me the Game Boy Advance and some games for it. For the most part, I stuck to Mario Kart for the GBA and Pokemon Red. By this time I was coming up to my teen years and I was fairly entertained through cartoon violence. So Mario and friends later got boring to me, lacking the things I want in games. I laid fairly dormant with my GBA until I was around 13 when I finally got my first PC.

Growing up in lower middle class, my parents couldn’t afford what I wanted in a PC so I got something a bit low brow. More attuned to a workstation than a gaming rig, I got this 512 MB with 40 GB computer running the last Intel Pentium ever created. This was my gateway to the world. To top it off my parents let the world wide web into the house with DSL and that’s when everything starting to ramp up for myself when I played the many games I soon to find to be everywhere. Firs it started with browser games that are precursors to Facebook games. Then I got a collection of pirated games from my sibling when they moved away for university; but mostly I remember Mechwarrior 3. By this time, my life starting to go downhill. In my child-like mind, the world didn’t seem as beautiful and carefree. As I entered high school, I already accumulated a lot of time into my first MMO, Kal Online which was a Korean MMO taken place in Korean lore. I got as far as I could in the game but in the end at level 25-ish, I gave up after feeling the grind of the game. Of course I moved on; Silkroad Online, WarRock, and Cabal comes to mind. Perhaps there a dozens I’ve played and forgotten. After my first PC finally gave, I got a new PC and continued playing. First on the roster if memory serves was NavyField which was a Korean MMO naval arena. Of course the game has been updated many times over the years; when I remembered it, the game only had 4 nations (US, GB, Germany and Japan). This second PC lasted me a good while and I even tried to go off gaming to pursue increasing my grades. With all my efforts and looking back on it, it was indeed a futile effort and regardless of any scientific study; it didn’t change my grades, I was still the below average student since grade school. Fondest memory was the closest time I went into Major League Gaming; yes that’s right, I was close to MLG material at the ripe age of 15/16. At the time, I was playing America’s Army with a clan I was in trying to get a team together into MLG. In short, the power went out and I lost my shot at a small pot of cash at a small growing gaming tournament league. I believe the cash prize was about $14-18 grand USD per person. In it’s finality of it continuing to this day, my parents view of video games is damning. Video games is a form of entertainment and not a business you can get into, so they say. Yet I could’ve been the coolest kid in high school since I won $14 000.

By now, it was about 8 years ago where I finally found a job and made some money to get myself a custom gaming PC. This is where everything went to hell in a hand basket and yet opened me to the world of video games on an addictive level. When I got my current rig, I went to town on my bank account and bought games. I spent it as wisely as I could starting with putting it into games I can play on Steam. I bought the Orange Box which as Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2 series and Portal for a cheap price. I went back to my roots somewhat and got GTA IV, I even stuck around cyberspace to explore the free games it has to offer. Before my 8800 GT GPU died and my hard drive in need a refurbishment, I think I played about the same amount of games I had played in the past over a span of 4-5 years. Which brings us to the last 3 years and now.

Now, I’m stuck to sharing games with others. I like aspects of co-op games and sandboxes. I’m stuck to my old ways where I play games I like. If my play time in Star Trek Online isn’t proof of my past, I don’t know what would prove where I was in the past 3 years. Moving forward, I want to break away from my parents opinions on video games. I want to making a small inkling in playing video games. If I can’t, at least I want to do is share my love for video games to the world at large.

When I was in high school, I was always fascinated by history. Reading about the ancient times, the renaissances and the wars of old. The interesting thing about human society is it’s ebbs and flows. Regardless of where we are in the world or what era we live in, there are 3 things which happen in order. In much of the same ways, we are live in between one of those moment and the new one. The world turns, even looking inward to our own lives; the 3 remain the same. The Resolution; the dust settles and adopt the new ways or resents them. The Pause; the plans are made on both sides to move the future to where they see fit, for greed or other reasons. The Revolution; the plan is in action and both sides stand to engage their enemies until one stands firm which brings us back to The Resolution.

It’s hardly intricate, but yet repetitive. Each moment in human history seems to revolve around this cycle. From the extent of my memory, look back on the old world. Take The European Renaissance as our example. The Resolution; after the plagues and wars, many sought out the ideologies of peoples millennia ago. Leading to The Pause, the rise of a new era of art and science; people started to looking through telescopes and looking at the world in a new light. Then which lead to The Revolution; the world before disapproves of how these people were looking at things which contradict how they thought the world worked before.

One more closer to our time? Early 20th century, new technology and the world slowly embracing machines to take them to places. To us, trains and automobiles seem mundane and slow; to them, it was quick and the new age. This was The Pause, right before the great wars in Europe; The Revolution where both side sought to change the world in their own right. With it was the enhancement of these technologies including planes, including new ideas of treating others. The world facing a new bloom of technology with The Resolution it brought, the war’s technology went home and brought us back to The Pause of the mid-1990; though even then, it wasn’t a quiet time. A new Revolution of human rights and mutual agreements where we began to women and races as equals and the “old world” arms proliferation reached it’s peak and realized it’s potential of mutual annihilation. Then once more, The Pause which bestowed our generation’s greatest advancement; the freaking Internet. In hours, information can be sent and received everywhere at any time. Meaning a sharing of ideas on society and the slow mistrust of once again “old world” influences. A bygone generation’s way of holding down power while we wait for the oncoming generation’s Revolution. We can already see this happening around the world. Ever since the turn of this century, everyone has been fighting for change and those who haven’t are being seeded the very idea which will spark that change.

In my opinion, this revolution won’t be about challenging the world’s ideologies of religion or science. It won’t be fighting over who’s right or wrong. And it won’t be over who controls what anymore. From what I’ve seen and read, this Revolution is about freedom; whether it is protecting what is already ours and fighting for the freedoms we as humans need. Even in the most civilized places will become the battleground to challenge those who oppose freedom and those who dare seek to gain control of them. This revolution will not be about winning or losing, but how much freedom before it turns into anarchy or totalitarianism. It is in my opinion going to be a fine line this generation will cross to test the limits of the old world’s ideologies on freedom while some will be claiming their own. It worries me to think the capabilities a population of billions to do. An anonymous person once said, “Some men want to watch the world burn.” It is only a matter of time this smoking tinder becomes a forest fire.

Until next time, change doesn’t happen overnight but is forged like a sword and tempered in fire.